August is coming to an end...

Not a whole lot to report here. We had some friends from Sunday school over for supper and games on Tuesday night and had a lot of fun getting to know them better. Our church's annual picnic is this Sunday afternoon, and our Sunday school group is in charge of it, which will be nice because we'll get to know some of them better by working hand-in-hand setting up, etc.

We're not sure what the weekend holds...could be new members' class at church, could be canning green beans (at my aunt and uncle's) and attending the SEC/MSU picnic in Denver, it could be camping, or Joel may have to work. He thought he was off the hook for this weekend, but came home a few minutes ago and said it is still up in the air.

Hurley is doing well. She got her 2nd round of vaccinations on Tuesday and weighs 42 lbs! Yikes! If she keeps it up at this pace, she won't be able to do this for much longer:


(not sure where she decided to pick up this nice habit)

We found her a dog house on Craigs List earlier this week, bleached it, and put it in her pen. I found a $3.22 comforter at Salvation Army today and it is currently drying on the line so she'll have a comfy place to sleep in her pen (though she doesn't know that yet).

Sod

Joel ran across some unused rolls of sod at work last week, so we laid them out in the backyard!

One tired puppy...

...and two tired people arrived back in Colorado Springs Saturday night after camping and hiking.

(the summary is below, and the photos with descriptions are in reverse order because blogger isn't allowing me to cut and paste right now)

At the end of the trail.

Views along the way.
A damp Hurley waiting for Joel to give her a dog treat.
We stopped to give Hurley a break and she dug a hole next to a rock and tried to take a nap.
One of the creeks we crossed along the trail...I love mountain streams!
Mining relics at the start of the Emerald Valley Ranch trail.
Campsite.


Joel enjoyed his Brickman Founder's Day on Friday. They played tug-of-war and soccer against the other branches. Unfortunately, the Colorado Springs branch didn't win anything, but a good time was had by all. When Joel got home, we packed up the car and headed into the mountains for a quick camping trip. We found one of the two free campgrounds in the Pike National Forest and really enjoyed the location. We took a gamble and took Hurley camping with us, but she did great! We just put her kennel next to the tent and she didn't make a peep until the morning! There were lots of things to smell and chew on, and I think she was on sensory overload.

Saturday morning, we tried to find two different trails, but ended up on a third because none of them were marked very well. The one we ended up taking was a nice wooded hike that was supposed to lead to some beaver ponds. It started raining when we reached what should have been the end of the trail, and we only saw one beaver puddle, so we headed back. It was a beautiful hike though, and I think it will be really nice in the fall because there were a lot of aspens along the way. Poor Hurley didn't know why we were punishing her with the rain. She kept trying to shake the rain off, but it didn't do much good!

We took a different route back to the car that was shorter, but uphill for about 2.5 miles. Hurley fell asleep immediately when we reached the car, and proceeded to sleep for the next 7 hours and all through the night!

I wish that I had my camera with me on our walk just now...a red fox ran across the road in front of Hurley and me! I'm pretty sure she saw it, but she didn't respond at all...but this did happen to be at the end of our walk when she was lying down refusing to go any farther.

On another Hurley note, if we wanted to meet people in this city, we should have found Hurley as soon as we got here! It is official: walking a really cute bloodhound mix puppy is the best way to have random people strike up conversations with you. We made two new friends at McDonald's when I was returning our RedBox movie!

Also, we think we may be nearing the end of our squirrel saga. I haven't heard it recently, but Joel has spotted it rearing his ugly head out of the hole above our garage door. Our landlord called in Animal Movers, and Mr. Mark The Professional Trapper came to scope out the situation. He found a hole that they had chewed into a plastic vent on the roof...

Evidence:
(the hole is in that thing on the right side of the picture)

...he placed two traps with peanut butter near their hole...
and a couple of hours later...

The Defendant in his trap:




And on to other news. I worked relief at a clinic on Friday as sort of a working interview. They aren't really looking to hire anyone right now, but I'm hoping I can at least get a few more days of work out of it every now and then. Joel had to work all day on Saturday, and then on Sunday afternoon, we built a pen for Hurley in the backyard (well, Joel did most of the work while I kept Hurley out of the way of the fence post driver). We haven't tried it out too much with her yet, as we're going to get a dog house, etc for it first.
(not sure how well you can see it...but this is her new pen)

Hurley playing with her tennis ball on a rope in her pen:



Not much else to report here! Some of the couples in our Sunday school class play Settlers of Catan, and one couple invited us over tonight for some friendly competition, so we're looking forward to that! Joel has his "Founder's Day" celebration on Friday...which means a picnic and soccer games for the company in Denver.

Joel and I have each made recent purchases for backpacking! I got a new pack at REI, and he has a new sleeping bag on the way! I was getting a little sore from carrying his external frame pack he has had since Scouts, and his old sleeping bag wasn't very warm (he figured if he was cold camping in August, he'll probably be cold every other month of the year!).
I loaded it up to try it out around the neighborhood, but Joel won't let me walk down our street with it on (women's Deuter packs come with the flower on a rubber band...it wasn't my special touch) .


And finally, your interesting Gazette article of the day:

2 earthquakes strike Colorado 1 day apart

August 18, 2009 9:47 AM

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CRAIG — The second earthquake to hit Colorado in two days has rattled the northwest corner of the state, but no damage has been reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the 3.7-magnitude quake struck at 8:50 p.m. on Monday. The epicenter was 11 miles north of Craig and 150 miles west of Denver.

Jeana Weber, a dispatcher for the State Patrol who lives about seven miles northwest of Craig, says she was reading in bed when her house began shaking.

She says her dogs were spooked and pictures on the walls shook.Weber says no damage has been reported to law-enforcement agencies.A 3.9 earthquake hit southeastern Colorado at 6:22 p.m. Sunday, but no damage was reported.

And a picture of Hurley on the fireplace next to her box of toys and a bulldog...
(she is getting really big).

Vacation

The Colorado Springs and Breckenridge legs of the Byrd-Johnston-Bennett-Butler Colorado Visit 2K9 is officially over. My parents and grandparents rolled into town last Friday after 18 hours of driving across the country in a Ford Aerostar van that is usually filled with my grandfather's wooden toys. For this trip, it was packed with furniture for us (two twin beds and a big comfy chair that my parents took turns napping in on the ride westward).

That night, we went to get mattresses for the bed and came back to the house to enjoy a late supper. The group that night consisted of Joel and I, my parents, my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and Hurley! We all spent the night at our house! It was nice to finally have a place where everyone could fit....maybe not 100% comfortably...but we all fit!

On Saturday, my parents stayed in Colorado Springs with us to view a few local sites. We started the day at the REI garage sale (which we were really excited to find that they'll start having once a month!!!). My parents both found some great deals, and Hurley got a new backpack!
Can't you tell how excited she is? She'll have to do some growing for the pack to fit...but I don't think growing will be something she has a problem with over the next several months!

After our outdoors bargain hunting, we had lunch downtown and walked around Old Colorado City and the Broadmoor. At the Broadmoor, we saw a mule deer with 2 fawns right in the flower beds!
One of the deer.
A few from the lake at the Broadmoor.

Saturday night we all went to Aunt Bev and Uncle Wade's in Denver and Hurley got to meet and play with Cede and Bailey (their two Boston Terriers). They got along great, but I'm pretty sure those two were glad for a rest when Hurley left. Sunday, Momma and Daddy and Granny and I headed up to Breckenridge where we spent Sunday and Monday nights. We did some browsing around town and went on two different hikes. On Sunday afternoon, we went to Blue Lakes just south of Breckenridge and it was absolutely beautiful! The hike was a bit more rocky and steep than we anticipated, but it was worth it for the views, and Hurley did really really well for her first time out on the trail, especially considering how rocky it was. I think we'll have to get her some boots to go with her backpack!

Hurley trying to convince Daddy to go rock-climbing with the rope.


One of the most interesting parts of the day occured when we got back to the car. There were 4 mountain goats waiting for us!


A safer viewing area.

My parents at Blue Lake.
With my mom and Hurley.

With my dad and Hurley.

On Monday, we found a trail right in Breckenridge that had some great views of the town and lots of neat old mining artifacts. This was a nice relaxing hike after Sunday's trek. We then took the scenic route back to Colorado Springs where we met Joel for supper before my parents headed to Denver.

Apologies...

...if you don't like dogs, you may want to ignore updates from our blog for the next few weeks. I have a feeling we could temporarily rename this "The Adventures of Hurley."

A quick background on our new family member...we found her on craigslist from a Army family who got her just a couple of days ago. This family also found her on craigslist, the husband went to check her out, and she was in such a bad environment that he felt as though he didn't have a choice but to take her. She was in a kennel that was way too small for her, and she was eating discarded people food off of the floor. The saddest part about the situation is that there were also seven children in the house, and the conditions for them weren't much better. The soldier told us he was calling DHS to have the children removed from the house.

So...this man got the puppy from the really awful house and took it home to join him, his wife, his two children under the age of 3, and his new Rottweiler puppy. Needless to say, his wife felt this situation was a bit overwhelming, so they decided that this pup would be better suited with another home. That new home is ours!

So far, she likes to nap in her kennel without us even asking, though she wasn't a big fan of having to sleep in it by herself last night. The family that had her before us allowed her on the couch, so we're trying to train that out of her. Thankfully, she seems pretty bright and knows the word "no" quite well. She likes her new tennis ball and she likes Joel who I can quote as saying (to Hurley), "you're just so cute you're hard to say no to." And to think he used to not like dogs!

Sleeping under the curtains.

Napping in her kennel.

As I mentioned last night, we have started naming dogs after characters from the TV series LOST:
Hurley and Hurley
Sawyer and Sawyer

Joel and Whit, Dog Owners!

So....we have a dog!?

I found a posting for a female bloodhound on Craig's List this afternoon...called Joel...contacted the seller...and now we have a dog! More details to come, but it turns out she is a black and tan bloodhound mix with a docked tail, about 4 months old! We think we'll name her Hurley (in keeping with our naming dogs after LOST characters).

Here are some pictures!